Awards recognize top presentations at Graduate Research Symposium

Grace Barcheck

Grace Barcheck accepted the Chancellor's Award from Tyrus Miller, dean of the graduate division, at the Graduate Research Symposium. (Photo by Judy Glass)

multimedia presentation

Barcheck's poster and multimedia presentation "The Heartbeat of an Ice Sheet" had many viewers and listeners during the symposium. (Photo by C. Lagattuta)

Ty Miller and Alex Moore

Alex Moore received the Graduate Dean's Award. (Photo by Judy Glass)

Graduate student researchers from across the divisions explained their work to a diverse audience during the 12th Annual Graduate Research Symposium at McHenry Library on Friday, April 29. The symposium included graduate student presentations in a variety of formats, including posters, short talks, films, and other media.

An Awards Reception was held on the south lawn after the symposium. Two awards recognizing outstanding presentations in any discipline were awarded: a $250 cash Graduate Dean's award and a $500 cash award for the Chancellor's Graduate Research Prize. The deans of each academic division awarded a $100 gift certificate for the UCSC bookstore for the best presentation in the division. The UCSC Alumni Association also sponsored prizes, a $150 gift certificate for the UCSC bookstore, honoring presentations in each academic division.

Here is a complete list of award winners from this year's symposium:

Chancellor’s Award: Grace Barcheck, Earth Sciences, for the media presentation "The heartbeat of an ice sheet: Turning science into sound from the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica."

Graduate Dean’s Award: Alex Moore, Visual Studies, with co-presenters Christine Turk and Danielle Crawford, for the poster presentation "Reading nature, observing science: Examining material practices in the Kenneth S. Norris and Lick Observatory papers."

Arts Division

Alumni Association Award: Ben Spalding, Digital Arts & New Media, for the oral presentation "Hydras like stories: Multi-player narrative design in digital games."

Dean’s Award: Lisa Beebe, Music, for the oral presentation "From old Hanoi to the Hotel California: The traveling tales of the Vietnamese Dan Bau monochord."

Jack Baskin School of Engineering

Alumni Association Award: David Haan, Biomolecular Engineering & Bioinformatics, for the poster presentation "Identifying novel driver genes of the alternative lengthening of telomeres pathway in pediatric cancer."

Dean’s Award: Juan Diaz, Electrical Engineering, for the poster presentation "Hierarchical moth-eye antireflection coatings."

Humanities Division

Alumni Association Award: Kendra Dority, Literature, for the poster presentation "Reading practices and language politics in ancient Greek and U.S. Latina/o literatures."

Dean’s Award: Chelsea Miller, Linguistics, for the poster presentation "Limited reactivation in noun phrase ellipsis."

Physical & Biological Sciences Division

Alumni Association Award: Juliano Calil, Ocean Sciences, for the oral presentation "Multidisciplinary approaches to coastal climate adaptation."

Dean’s Award: Bin Yao, Chemistry & Biochemistry, for the poster presentation "Flexible transparent semiconductor nanopaper for energy storage."

Social Sciences Division

Alumni Association Award: Jackson Tolins, Psychology, for the oral presentation "Listening to the listener: The role of addressee backchannels in dialogue comprehension."

Dean’s Award: Shirin Bakhshay, Psychology, for the poster presentation "The media's impact on the right to a fair trial: A content analysis of pre-trial pubicity in capital cases."